Shells on Florida’s beaches were prolific last week.
I couldn’t resist bringing some home with me.
See other versions of prolific at the link above. Or a few of my favorites here, here and here.
Tag Archives: Photography
Neither here nor there
Katie here, continuing my travelog. Mama and I are headed home to daddy, and today is our second day of driving. All day. Yesterday I wasn’t very good about being in the car for so long, but I can explain!
Which looks better? Me or the mountains?
No one told me that we were driving home! I thought we were just going to the beach or the park and I didn’t understand that I’d be cooped up in the car all day! So I kept asking mama if we were there yet and by the end of seven hours she was about over the whole travel with Katie-girl thing.
So she says.
What a pretty day to travel!
Today I was a lot better, though by the last hour I did throw a bit of a fit. After all, my supper was more than 2 hours late! I had to remind mama that it was unacceptable to hold up a princess’s supper.
Anyway, we drove a little bit of the Blue Ridge Parkway on our way north. Not a lot of it, mind you, cause mama is on a mission to get home, but we got to see a little bit of it. She loves the layers of blue.
Perfect!
Me too, I could sit and look out over the view for a long time. Or until someone gives me a biscuit.
Enjoying the view.
Speaking of which, I’ve been snacking on treats Reilly’s mom packed for us. My guy even gave me heart biscuits! He’s a special guy, my Reilly.
Thank you Reilly sweetie!
Mama is really enjoying watching spring unfold all over again. It was spring weeks ago in Alabama and now that we’re in Kentucky we get to see the redbud and dogwood trees blooming all over again.
Isn’t this pretty?
And the deciduous trees are just budding out, with red and peach and orange and lime green making the mountains just glow in the sun. Mama couldn’t get a good picture of it cause she was driving. But the image below she took when we were at the Kentucky welcome center. The trees were on the other side of the freeway, and the light wasn’t as perfect as she’d seen when she was driving, but you can kinda see how beautiful it is here this time of year.
Can you see all the colors ?
Tonight mama is worried and is watching the weather channel. It looks like tomorrow we’ll be driving right into a bad storm. She can’t decide if we should get up early and try to beat the storm home, or if we should stay here for another night. But she says it would probably be two more nights because Saturday afternoon all the way into Sunday looks bad.
I don’t know what we’re going to do. Mama says we should get some sleep and see what tomorrow looks like. I personally think we should go back to our lake house, but mama says she has stuff to do in Michigan.
Glad we had a good day, cause tomorrow is going to be different.
Stuff to do? I thought she was retired!
Signing off….your travel guide Katie-girl.
Just another photo of me. Mama just won’t quit.
A date with my boyfriend
Katie here. You all know I’m down in Florida waiting out the snow up north and visiting with my boyfriend Reilly Cowspot Dog. Well guess what? Yesterday we got to go on a date and we went to Reilly’s park!
The moms asked us if we wanted to go and we got all excited. But then, in a typical mama fashion, she took forever to get all her stuff together and eventually I made my opinion known.
Come ON people! Let’s get moving!
They moved a little faster after that and soon we were all in the back of the car headed out!
Everybody’s ready to go mama!
Once we got to the park we could hardly contain ourselves. So many great smells, and we were barely out of the parking lot!
Good sniffing everywhere!
Some of the time I spent with my special guy….
Let’s go this way Reilly!
…but most of the time we all just hung out together. That’s OK. I like Reilly’s little brother Denny too.
We didn’t always agree which way to go.
Of course the moms made us stop to take pictures. We tried to cooperate.
We’ll all look at you guys if you promise this is the last time we have to pose.
But sometimes we just had to take things into our own paws and put a stop to all the photography.
Enough is enough moms!
We did agree to sit with each of the moms for a photo. We figured if they had to do it they’d see how annoying it was to be interrupted while having a fun day at the park just for a photo opportunity.
This is my mama with all of us!
We had the best time! I treasure every minute I get to spend with my guy Reilly and his family. And that’s not just cause his mom gave us doggy ice cream when we got back home.
Yum. How come you never buy me these mama?
Yep, I’m a lucky princess. Kisses to my prince Mr. Reilly.
Me and my guy.
And thanks to mama and Reilly’s mom for taking us on a wonderful date!
What’s next mama?
Florida pretty
Katie and I are still in Florida. Lots of pretty things here.
Ocean spray is good for my furs
A beautiful spring day at the beach.
Katie here, continuing as your tour guide. Today I take you to see the Atlantic Ocean in northern Florida. Though to be honest most of what you’ll see is me. But that’s why you come to visit my, ahem, mama’s blog. Right?
I thought so.
Showing off my true form, and proving I’m not fat! It’s just fur people!
This will have to be short as I had a very long day yesterday driving in the car for miles and miles and hours and hours and then today I got to walk on the beach forever. So I’m behind in my sleep quotient and I need to get to bed.
I’m visiting my intended Mr. Reilly Cowspotdog in Florida for a couple of days. He didn’t feel up to frolicking on the beach so I sacrificed and went to inspect one of his beaches for him. I always do my duty, yes I do.
Everything’s OK under these rocks, Reilly!
It was a little bit warm, at 63 degrees, but very windy which kept my furs fluffy and cool. There was hardly anyone else on the beach.
Nose into the wind and on a mission.
That meant that mama could let me run free most of the time, though she had to hook me back up to my leash when joggers went by because I like to tell them off and mama says that’s rude. Whatever. It’s Reilly’s beach and I’m just making sure everyone knows that we shelties rule!
I got the zoomies for a little bit, I was so happy!
Mama took a few pictures of things that were not me, but not very many. Mostly I kept her entertained by all the fun I was having. She likes watching me enjoy new things. I guess that’s why she takes me with her on so many of her adventures.
Artsy pelicans.
My only complaint about this adventure was the first wave. The tide was coming in and I forgot how wet the ocean was and I was standing there and a wave came up and went right over my feet! I jumped and mama laughed and I twirled around trying to get it off me and then it left. I was mortified and never let it happen again! Mama didn’t get a good picture, but this is sort of how I looked.
Wet feet! Wet feet! Wet feet! Get it off of me mama!
Oh, and another embarrassing thing was that mama kept trying to get a picture of my behind with the wind blowing all the fur forward. She says it was cute. I made sure she didn’t get a decent shot. Then just as we were leaving she said she got me AND the danger flag.
Drats. Never let your guard down with a mama and her camera.
Anyway, I’m outta here, I have things to do and people to sniff.
Talk to you guys later. Don’t look at my behind.
Signing off for now, Katie, beachcomber extraordinaire.
Mama! Don’t you embarrass me!
How I spent my Gotcha Day
This looks like a magical place!
Katie here! Did you know that March 31 is my Gotcha Day? That’s the anniversary of the day I came home to live with my mama and daddy. Well, this year I am down in the South with my mama and you know what? She forgot my anniversary! She didn’t remember until we got home a whole day late!
But I forgive her because on the actual day we were so busy that even I forgot to ask for an anniversary treat! (Plus I got lots of treats because we were out adventuring all day long!)
Lots of big faces everywhere.
Saturday morning, my Gotcha Day, my Uncle and my Aunt and mama and I went to a very interesting art compound about an hour south of Columbus Georgia. It’s called Pasaquan, and it was built by a hippie kinda guy back in the 70s. (Mama says don’t say back in the 70s cause according to her that was just a couple years ago. Whatever mama.) You can hear him talk about it if you go to the link above. You can also google it and find out more. It’s been restored and is supported by Columbus State University and the Kohler Foundation.
The hippie dude, whose name was Eddie Owens Martin, called himself St. Om, and spelled it St. EOM.
Signed and dated.
It was a warm day but Mama and my Aunt and Uncle made sure I had water and got to sit in the shade a bunch. Still, being the model that I am, I had to pose in front of some stuff.
Lots of pretty color here!
I tell you, the colors here were so bright that sometimes I had to squint my eyes! Oh wait. That was the sun. Well anyway. We walked around all over but my favorite spot was this circle of sand. Whenever we were near there, while mama was busy taking pictures of stuff not me, I would run over there and stand in the sand. I wonder if she got my message that I wanted to go to the beach?
It’s cooler at the beach mama!
Mama would look around when she got done with her silly camera and say, “where’s Katie?” HA! Sometimes I was standing right behind her. And sometimes I was at my beach! After awhile she just never let go of the leash. Darn.
Just one of many crazy and beautiful walls.
There was a cool house there, with these funny steps up to it. I ran right up the steps because they were nice and wide…
Come on up!
…even though I knew that I’d have to pose on them for mama. I’ve got this gig figured out. Pose for a picture, get a treat. Sometimes mama would say “OK sweetie, this is the last one.” But I knew she was lying. It’s never the last picture!
We stayed a long time. They even packed a picnic lunch and ate it under some trees. Mama couldn’t stop taking pictures, and a lot of them weren’t all about me!
I think that guy was watching me.
There were plenty of places where I could rest in the shade while my peeps explored. We had the whole thing to ourselves except for a little bit where one other guy was there taking pictures. Mama says she’ll have to bring daddy here some day.
This guys’s watching me too mama!
I think the man that created this had a different sort of mind than me. For example, just about the only animals in any of this work were snakes. No dogs. I don’t know what he was thinking. Though he did have two big shepherds that kept him company out here in the country.
Layers of walls filled the space.
There was so many colors and shapes it was almost overwhelming. It’s definitely a place you should visit if you’re ever in that part of Georgia.
All sorts of color everywhere.
Full disclosure though, there are some art pieces depicting naked men and women. So maybe don’t bring your kids or your mother. Shelties are OK though.
Call ahead for the hours. We hear they change by the season.
Mama says there is so much more to show you but maybe she’ll put together a slide show later. She says I have to get off the computer now and go outside to play. She says too much screen time isn’t good for me.
Geeze. I didn’t even get to tell you where we went next on my Gotcha Day! I guess I’ll have to wait till she falls asleep and do another post. Shouldn’t be long, she’s old and falls asleep all the time.
Over and out, your art critic gal Katie.
She told me this was the ‘last’ picture. I doubted it. I was right.
Stormy weather
Yesterday the evening weather guy mentioned a large storm front through the middle of the state. I glanced up to see his weather map featuring a bright red and yellow streak bisecting Alabama. And moving rapidly toward me.
I got up to look outside.
Oh my. Grabbing the camera I ran downstairs and out to the dock.
Spellbinding
What an amazing cloud, with even darker skies to the north. I felt the wind coming down the lake, the waves changed direction and the chop crashed into the side of boats and rocked against the shore. Not so far out there I could smell the rain. I managed to get a few shots as the cloud moved rapidly from north to south, and then I ran as fast as I could back up the hill and into the house.
The rain slashed across the windows as I climbed the stairs to a freaked out Katie-girl. We watched the storm together for a bit and then just as fast as it arrived it was over. Whoa, I said to the dog pressed tight to my side. What the heck was that?! Don’t know, mama, she said, but let’s not do that again any time soon.
OK sweetie. That’s a deal.
WordPress photo challenge: Sunset
When I saw this week’s prompt I knew immediately the sunset I wanted to show you.
Fire to the south of me.
I was in northern Michigan in December of 2015 when one evening the sky just exploded. To the south it was burning in orange and reds, and to the north the sky was sighing in shades of pink and purple.
Cotton candy to the north of me.
The air was pinkish gold. I couldn’t shoot fast enough, and I never felt the cold.
The waves were tipped in light.
Though I usually limit myself to one photo for a photo challenge, this time I just couldn’t decide. So since the sunset itself was divided between fire and sweet I decided to go with full disclosure.
The islands out at the horizon were crowned by gold and purple.
Picture me turning from south to north and back again, trying not to miss any detail.
It just kept getting better.
It was amazing and I’m so glad to be able to relive it through these shots.
What a place to sit and enjoy the show!
And, as always, I’m glad to share them with you.
A firestorm in the sky.
Barn hunting
I’ve been watching this barn as I come and go. Today there were horses so I had to stop.
Katie and I like to go exploring, mostly looking for good places to take a walk, but sometimes just to see what’s there. And along the way there have been a few barns.
You know me and barns.
I’ve driven by some of them because there was nowhere safe to park. That always breaks my heart. I imagine pulling in a driveway and asking whoever was there if it is OK to take a picture of their barn. “Why?” I imagine them asking me and I realize I have no real reason to need an image of their barn. I just want it. So I don’t stop unless I can do it anonymously and from a safe distance.
I could spend all day wandering country roads looking for barns.
This red barn was sitting right in front of me while I was stopped in construction traffic last week.
Can’t resist a red barn.
I shot it through my dirty windshield, just as traffic was beginning to move. At the time I thought maybe I’d drive back out that way to see if there was somewhere to park so that I could take a more studied shot. But tonight I decided that the through the windshield image wasn’t that bad.
And you’ve seen this last one before. A couple weeks ago I saw it, and turned around, parked on a side road and walked a country block to shoot it. Along the way a huge dog in someone’s back yard snarled and barked and I realized that probably walking along any country road was a stupid idea. Because down here hardly any dog is contained, and I was lucky this one couldn’t get over the fence.
Still…it’s a beautiful barn.
A hidden gem.
